Sundance review: 'The Moment' is a clever and frenetic mockumentary that gives Charli XCX a chance to satirize the music industry

Not since The Beatles in “A Hard Day’s Night” has a real pop star satirized themselves as thoroughly and as smartly as Charli XCX does in “The Moment,” a mock-documentary from director Aidan Zamiri that skewers the whole machinery behind rock ’n’ roll glory.

Charli plays herself, or a version of herself, as she’s getting ready to launch an arena tour to capitalize on the global success of her 2024 album “brat” and all the green-tinted “brat summer” trendiness that went along with it. As the rehearsals begin for the arena shows, everyone has an opinion of how it should go.

At the center, Charli is relying on her artistic adviser and friend, Celeste (Hailey Benton Gates), to keep the show true to the singer’s creative vision. But everyone — the hard-charging record company boss (Rosanna Arquette), Charli’s double-talking manager (Jamie Demetriou) and even her assistant (Trew Mullen) and her makeup artist (Kate Berlant) — wants to chime in, in an effort to keep the “brat” bandwagon moving.

The tension grows significantly when the label wants to bring in a hotshot film director, Johannes, played by Alexander Skarsgard. Johannes is a desirable director to the suits, because he has a track record making commercially successful music videos. Charli and Celeste think Johannes’ work is artistically devoid of style or substance, and would kill the “brat” movement.

Charli’s handling of the tour’s artistic voice is just one of the fires she’s putting out. She’s hearing a pitch for a “brat”-themed credit card. She runs into one of her shallow American friends (Rachel Sennott) in one nightclub bathroom, and at a spa in Ibiza she encounters Kylie Jenner. She’s also struggling with self-doubt that her artistic vision is worth the record label’s time and money.

“The Moment” isn’t just about the noise that surrounds a pop star, but also about the screaming in Charli XCX’s head as she juggles her artistic expectations with the hangers-on who only see Charli’s art as an ATM. 

Zamiri, who wrote the script by Bertie Brandes (from an original idea by Charli XCX), moves at a frenetic and highly energetic pace. (At the screening at Sundance, the staffer who introduced the film warned of high-speed strobing effects that could affect people with visual sensitivity.) The rapid edits and jump cuts between, for example, the record label’s London offices to the Dagenham warehouse where the tour rehearsal is going on, are reflective of the quicksilver mind of a singer who is making a pointed statement about art vs. commerce. 

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‘The Moment’

★★★1/2

Screening in the Premieres section of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Rated R for language throughout and some drug material. Running time: 103 minutes.

The film screens again: Wednesday, Jan. 28, 4:40 p.m., Redstone Cinemas 2, Park City; Friday, Jan. 30, 9 a.m., Redstone Cinemas 1, Park City; Saturday, Jan. 31, 2:30 p.m., The Ray, Park City. The movie is slated to open in theaters in select cities on Jan. 30, then more widely (including in Salt Lake City) on Feb. 13.